Book Review: Gone Girl by: Gillian Flynn

Let's talk about this book.  I am one of the few, I am sure..who chose to READ the book before seeing the movie.  I finished on Saturday evening around 11 pm and still have not caught the movie...but the whole time reading it, I won't lie.. I was picturing Good Old Benny as Lance...I mean Nick Dunne. 

So, this book first off, before giving any real details...was one of the hardest books I have ever had..just getting INTO.  This is not an understatement.  I started this book in November...That is a sad admittance.  I have picked it up...put it down...picked it up..put it down.  It lacked interest for me while in the first hundred pages and really took some boredom and discipline to insert myself back into the picture.  But, I can say that once you hit page 100...get ready because it really gets moving.  There are twists, turns, things that I knew were going to happen...then wham!  I would get hit with something completely off the way. 

OK...Disclaimer!  If you have not read the book...or saw the movie and you INTEND to---do not read ANY FURTHER or you will be entering SPOILER ALERT ZONE.-----------

You have been warned!

We are met with two characters Nick Dunne (Chapter 1)  and Amy Elliot (Chapter 2).  Amy is the beauty who is snared by Nick, ,who can't believe his good fortune. Amy is well off and adores Nick.  Both are writers living in New York until they lose their jobs.  While this is happening, Amy's parents become financially bereft and ask Amy to borrow her money.  Now Amy and Nick are poor, using the last of Amy's money to buy a bar in his hometown of Missouri, which Nick and his twin sister, Go, run. 

Amy has another side to her personality, one that  she has only begun to show Nick and found that he dislikes this Amy. The marriages begins to fall apart.  

When Amy disappears in mid-day, Nick is believed to be the cause of her disappearance.  Did he murder his beloved wife?  It is a question that you will continue to ask yourself throughout this part of the book.  Nick knows he did not , but all the signs point to that conclusion.  The police believe believe he is responsible, her Parents, who stand by him at the beginning come to think that he is responsible.  The evidence is stacked again Nick.  The public and media are likewise convinced.  Nick starts to wonder if his own twin sisters thinks the same of him. 

Before we discover the TRUTH, we get a lot of details of every perspective. 

This is where the pages kept turning, one by one as the who dun nit echos loud in your ear. 

You are on a ride that is showing you this diary of a poor woman who is so lonely and sad and just wants her husband to love her...the twist is when you find out how truly messed up, what a liar she really is.  Slowly, you find that you have been lied to, over and over again, as a reader, as Nick.  There were times when I even thought that Nick was behind this whole thing...like he was such a liar, even being called a liar by his own twin sister.  His actions speaking a different language than the true story. 

It is when Nick goes on his wild goose hunt, alone...that I finally know. I get it. I question his Andie, side piece. Maybe he was telling her he wanted a divorce and she was tired of waiting- but she was to nice, to childish to be able to handle murder.  I thought of Go, maybe finding out that Amy was going to frame her brother, maybe being smarter, with her dislike for Amy and finding the things in the shed.  I thought maybe it was one of Amy's crazies, especially Desi. He just seemed suspicious or off from his character when Nick met him.  It was a wonder that he did not put together Amy's crazy before hand either.  I loved how that karma came back to Amy though, it was a little slap in the face...that obviously did not work.

At the end of the story, the plot twists again, in a weird way.  I was hoping, praying at that point that more karma came Amy's way...only to be sadly disappointed because it did not.  She got what she wanted.  I wanted her to burn for her craziness.  The last sentence left me in a wonder... she had to make sure she had the last word...did that mean that he said that wrong thing and she killed him?  I am still left in wonder. Interpretation, I am sure.

This can be found at the beginning of the book.

To Read or NOT TO READ?

I think it is a  reader.  It had a weird twist, a weird angle and I was left in disappointment, but I liked the twist.  I, at one point, told my hubby that I was reading a really messed up book!

Readable.

To see the movie...Um, Ben Affleck!  DUH!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am moving onto the last (third) book in my Nora Roberts Series, Blood Magick- Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy.

County Mayo is rich in the traditions of Ireland, legends that Branna O’Dwyer fully embraces in her life and in her work as the proprietor of The Dark Witch shop, which carries soaps, lotions, and candles for tourists, made with Branna’s special touch.

Branna’s strength and selflessness hold together a close circle of friends and family—along with their horses and hawks and her beloved hound. But there’s a single missing link in the chain of her life: love…

She had it once—for a moment—with Finbar Burke, but a shared future is forbidden by history and blood. Which is why Fin has spent his life traveling the world to fill the abyss left in him by Branna, focusing on work rather than passion.

Branna and Fin’s relationship offers them both comfort and torment. And though they succumb to the heat between them, there can be no promises for tomorrow. A storm of shadows threatens everything that their circle holds dear. It will be Fin’s power, loyalty, and heart that will make all the difference in an age-old battle between the bonds that hold their friends together and the evil that has haunted their families for centuries.

Don’t miss the first two books in the Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy

Dark Witch

and

Shadow Spell

Until I have read this one...

~Kel